Series Mania Welcomes ‘Succession’ Star Brian Cox, Spoofs ‘The Crown,’ Teases ‘Garbage in Paris’

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Method acting” long ago lost its meaning. Instead, it’s become a catchall to describe an intense commitment to getting it right on stage or screen. It’s an all-out approach that sees performers pack and shed pounds, feast on live cockroaches or raw bison, extract teeth or eschew showers, and remain in character between takes. Those are just a few examples of the extremes to which Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Shia LaBeouf, Charlize Theron, Daniel Day-Lewis and their ilk push themselves in the service of their art. For their suffering, they receive Oscars and Emmys, along with a ton of media coverage — just look at the scores of pieces documenting the gonzo things Jared Leto has done each time one of his movies get released.

Succession star Kieran Culkin has revealed in a new interview that he wanted “to cry” after his co-star Sarah Snook made a comment about the show coming to an end.Speaking to Esquire for a cover story, Culkin revealed that at the Emmys last year, Snook approached him with a remark on how they might never work together again once Succession comes to an end. The comment was made long before anyone knew season four would be the show’s last.“Hey, Kieran, you’ll love this,” Snook said to Culkin.

telling Variety: “He’s getting on! He’s getting old. He’s tired — he’s very tired!”Cox, 76, stars in the hit HBO drama as patriarch and business titan Logan Roy, whose children are constantly at odds over control of his media empire. He’s had health problems throughout the series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In cricket-mad India the upcoming Indian Premier League tournament could be a watershed for the country’s jostling media empires, according to Singapore-based consultancy and analysis firm, Media Partners Asia. Video rights for the tournament were split between incumbent pay-TV player Disney Star India, which paid close to $3.1 billion for broadcast rights to the five 2023-2027 editions, and Viacom18, which is backed by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Paramount (as a minority stakeholder), in partnership with financier Bodhi Tree Systems. It paid a similar sum for the separate digital rights. Media Partners Asia estimates that advertising revenues spawned by the two-month 2023 competition will end up around $550 million – representing a clear loss on the annualized cost of $1.2 billion, or roughly $600 million per conglomerate, for the tournament rights. (The analysis firm forecasts that RIL will earn $300-350 million in ad sales, while Star’s best-case scenario is $220 million.)

With Series Mania 2023 coming to a close, the event’s founder and general director Laurence Herszberg announced the winners of the Series Mania Festival today.

EXCLUSIVE: Brian Cox is back as Logan Roy on Sunday, and the Succession star is next getting a special on BritBox International.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan has become a go-to destination for Chinese language series production over the past few years, as international streamers have taken the initiative and as the local content trend has become entrenched in Asia. While some of Taiwan’s advantage may have been handed to it as a result of regional political factors, the movement has led to greater interest in Taiwan stories, both historical and modern.Five Taiwan TV projects are being pitched at Series Mania, that are deemed to have international appeal according to Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), a government-backed agency that has become noticeably proactive over roughly the same period.

HBO series.Strong, 44, made headlines in 2021 when the New Yorker revealed his full-immersion acting methods, which he has employed for his role as Kendall Roy.Cox, who plays Logan Roy, has previously said that Strong’s method acting is “f–king annoying” — and he made his opinion known once again in a spoof of a MasterClass on acting.In an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the actor admitted that he’s been “a little harsh” on the topic of method acting.“I’m sorry about that. In fact, I’ve been trying to set the record straight in a Master Class series of acting that I’ve been doing,” he told Fallon, 48, before introducing the parody.A video of a MasterClass bit plays with the text: “Brian Cox Teaches the Craft of Method Acting.”Cox then appears and shouts, “Just f–king do it! Say the f–king lines, and don’t bump into the f–king furniture!”Last month, Cox did an interview with Town & Country where he spoke about Strong, saying, “He’s a very good actor.

Casey Bloys wants Kate Winslet to be venerated in the States.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Brian Cox’s hatred of Method acting has gone so viral in recent weeks that he parodied himself during a recent visit to “The Tonight Show” to promote the upcoming fourth and final season of HBO’s “Succession.” Host Jimmy Fallon asked Cox about all the media attention surrounding his hatred of Method acting, to which the actor responded, “Well you know, Jimmy, I’ve been a little harsh.” “I’ve been a little harsh on it,” Cox continued. “I’m sorry about that… in fact, I’ve been trying to set the record straight in a MasterClass series of acting that I’ve been doing. Well actually, I brought a clip. I think this more eloquently explains my feelings about acting. Can we show it?”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960’s and 1970’s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern and effortlessly sexy French woman, and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends. The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide. “‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950’s and 1960’s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told Variety.

Amazon Prime Video is exploring more global franchise opportunities following the success of the Russo Brothers’ Citadel.

Sky Studios CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz has called the plethora of shows on the market “really confusing” for viewers.

f—ing annoying.” Then just this week, Cox had more bad things to say about method acting, calling it “American s—,” and urging actors to “just do the job. Don’t identify.”Fallon brought that whole thing up while chatting with Cox.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Germany’s Beta Group is a company for our challenged times, Moritz von Kruedener, Beta Group managing director told an audience at Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues on Thursday.  He also broke down Beta’s business model which takes elements which hark back to the past – a powerful, ultra connected territory-by-territory international sales apparatus  combined with Beta’s biggest pivot in recent years: a move from picking up and selling finished shows into far larger production involvement, be its financial support or early upstream input on maximising a project’s international potential. Beta Group and Series Mania has also scored heavily at this year’s festival with the first edition go Seriesmakers, a mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut.

When it was announced that HBO’s “Succession” would be ending its run after the upcoming fourth season, debuting in a matter of days, fans were saddened to know this would be the end of the line for the Roy family on TV screens. But for those involved in the creation of the series, especially star Brian Cox, the end of “Succession” is a reason to celebrate.

Netflix teased its slate of European series, including part 3 of its hit heist show “Lupin,” starring Omar Sy, during its showcase at Series Mania in Lille. The panel was attended by Katja Hofem from Germany, Damien Couvreur from France and Jenny Stjernströmer Björk from the Nordics, who each discussed their editorial strategies. The streamer also announced season 2 of its off-beat comedy series “Represent” starring Cesar-winning actor-director Jean-Pascal Zadi (“Tout simplement noir”) as an ordinary man from a project becomes President of France. The show, whose French title is “En Place,” launched earlier this year and was one of the service’s biggest local hits. Other new French titles in the pipeline include “Thicker than Water,” “Tapie,” “Fury” and “Anthracite.”

Unspoken,” a war drama series wrapping in a thriller format one of ordinary people’s most relatable nightmares and the urgent relevance of a real-life game-changing conflict, walked off Tuesday night with the Series Mania Forum Best Project Award, the highest-profile industry prize at the biggest TV festival in Europe.  Given to one of 15 drama series projects pitched Tuesday on the first day of proceedings at the Series Mania Forum in its centerpiece Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, the Award carries a €50,000 ($53,500) cash prize, enough to boost seriously continued development on the TV show.  Produced by Match & Spark (Poland), Toy Cinema and 2Brave Productions (Ukraine), the six-episode series is created by Filip Syczyński, who is co-writing with Zhanna Ozirna. 

HBO television show, “Succession.”While walking the red carpet at the Season 4 series premiere on Monday, Cox admitted to Entertainment Tonight that he was “happy” the show was coming to a close.“I think we’ve, you know, got to the point where the show has reached its natural closure,” he told the outlet.Cox explained that he believes Jesse Armstrong, the series’ creator and showrunner, made the right decision.“Jesse won’t let anything go on further than it needs to,” Cox said. “A lot of shows outstay their welcome, and I think our show is perfect, and neat, in the way it is.”He added, “In a good way, I’m happy it’s over.”“Succession” follows the fictional Roy family, who own Waystar Royco, a global media and entertainment group. Things begin to change for the family when their father steps down for the company, as the rest of them are left to fight for control, according to IMDb.

Nothing like a good ‘ole Logan Roy outburst to fire up the red carpet premiere of Succession‘s fourth and final season.